FAIRYTALES by Hans Christian Andersen didn't get much of a telling in the childhood home of Morten Albaek.

''I had a dad who refused to entertain me when I was a kid by reading me children's books,'' says the global head of marketing for Vestas Wind Systems, the Danish company that's built one-quarter of the world's wind turbines.

''He strongly believed that it was a child's right only to listen to adults that spoke to them with passion and concentration … he would never read aloud to me so that I could sleep.''

Albaek snr instead preferred the texts of Descartes, Kant and Hegel for his eight year-old son who says he was ''positively brainwashed'' to believe ''that sensibility does exist and progress can and will happen'', rather than lolled into slumber.

Sleep deprivation and idealism seem appropriate topics. When we meet in Sydney, Albaek, 37, is clutching a bottle of Coke and battling jetlag after a 26-hour flight from Europe.

Albaek was in Australia to promote the Vestas-backed Energy Transparency campaign aimed at encouraging companies to reveal the proportion of renewable energy they use. A separate study commissioned by the company found Australian consumers prefer renewable energy over fossil fuels 74 per cent to 5.6 per cent - almost precisely the inverse of reality.

An optimist, Albaek reckons consumers, armed with appropriate information, will favour brands produced using more renewable energy even if they cost more. ''When you provide consumers with that transparency, they will act sensibly,'' he said. ''They will choose products that help the planet sustain, not fall apart.''

Hopes dashed

That optimism, to be sure, is regularly tested.

Soon after joining Vestas in 2009 from the world of banking, Albaek and fellow Danes witnessed firsthand the collapse of the Copenhagen talks to secure a global agreement to combat climate change through cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

Hopes had been built up that ''once and for all'' the world would act on global warming by changing the energy mix and getting ''much more renewable energy into the global grid fast,'' he said. ''So it was of course a disappointment that [the talks] became a flop instead of nirvana for renewable energy.''

With another climate gathering due to start next week in Doha, Qatar, Albaek doesn't hold out much hope for major progress. ''Our expectations are modest. We don't expect Doha to be a groundbreaking summit.''

Albaek's and Vestas's response to the failure at Copenhagen, was to redouble efforts to get citizens as consumers to push governments to switch from fossil fuel-based energy sources.

One result was the creation by Albaek of ''WindMadeTM'', the world's first global consumer label for a single energy source and the only consumer label officially endorsed by the United Nations. Another was the launch, with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, of the Corporate Renewable Energy Index, the first gauge of the energy sources used by some of the world's largest firms.

Albaek is unabashed about the self-interest involved.

''Wind is the most developed, mature and deployed renewable energy that we have in the world and, furthermore, Vestas is the world leader in wind energy,'' he said. ''It's logical that Vestas [created] WindMade and not SolarMade.''

He concedes, though, the trademark will eventually evolve into ''CleanMade'' or a similar tag to embrace all renewable energy sources. Turbines are becoming more efficient, with generation costs falling a quarter for onshore wind farms since 2008, according to Bloomberg. Solar photovoltaic prices are tumbling even faster, diving 70 per cent over the same period.

Despite the technology gains, Vestas is under siege. Its shares, now worth about 5 billion Danish krone ($830 million), are down about 96 per cent from their mid-2008 peak.

Fierce competition

Intense competition, particularly from China's Sinovel and Goldwind, is eroding profitability, fanning speculation Vestas will be forced to sell shares or secure a partner, such as Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Vestas, which last year held about 20 per cent of the market outside China but only 13 per cent when it is included, will shed almost a third of its staff over two years in a bid to return to profit. ''Even though the global wind industry is going through a crisis, you haven't heard anybody say they want to leave it,'' Albaek said. ''Everybody knows this business is here to stay, it's going to grow.''

Australia, already among the top 10 markets, may see much of that expansion. Provided there's sufficient community support for wind farms and the government doesn't amend its current target for renewable energy (20 per cent by 2020), Australia's 2.5 gigawatts of wind power capacity is forecast to grow by an average of 1 GW annually for the rest of the decade.

Albaek is philosophical about the firm's struggles, literally.

His first book, Generation f***ed up? took a dim view of Danish society circa 2005, while Encounters, in 2008, examined the discrepancy between one's ideals and actions, not least when it comes to tackling climate change.

His third book, due out next year with the working title of Mean Management, will develop what Albaek calls ''capitalistic humanism''.

Capitalistic humanist firms attempt to mitigate the market's incessant demand to earn ''as much money as fast as possible'' by ''developing and selling products that sustain and improve the conditions for human beings'', he said.

''If you want to create a mean and efficient commercial machine, you need to ensure that all your employees not only know what they have to do, but as well find what they do meaningful, not only professionally but also existentially,'' he said.

While employees facing the chop may find the notion less meaningful than mean, Albaek insists one's employment makes a difference. Turning around a big tobacco company, for instance, ''would enable it to sell more cigarettes, thus contributing to killing people''.

Childhood memories, it seems, haven't faded.

''My idealism is rooted in a firm belief that mankind is born sensible and that we just need to create a new enlightenment period,'' he muses.

''It has been close to 400 years since we had the last one so I think it's time for the next one.''